Kyonko in Exile
by Hcobb
Summary: Kyonko starts the story in Kyon's bed and then it gets weird.
1. Chapter 1

[SHnY] Kyonko in Exile  
By Henry J. Cobb

[The Haruhi Suzumiya characters and situations are the creation of Nagaru Tanigawa. Other than that, he's blameless for the following.]

For some reason I was lying with my sore cheek against the pillow. I tried to turn over, but there was somebody behind me. As I was just waking up it took me a few seconds to remember yesterday's argument. I sat up to look over at him. It wasn't him. A strange boy was lying in my bed and looking at me.

"Who are you?" We both asked in unison.

I took my eyes off him for a moment to look around my room. There was a boy's school jacket over my chair and a few things had been moved or changed. "What happened to my room?"

"Your room? This is my room." He backed away from me and sat against the wall.

"No, this is my room. Why did you mess with my stuff?"

* * *

I had that strange dream again. It was the one where I was some sort of giant monster, crushing city buildings. That's not what bothered me when I woke up on Saturday morning.

I looked down at my hand. I had slapped her last night and told her I didn't want to see her again. It hadn't been that hard of a slap, but it was all her fault. She shouldn't make jokes like that. I've got another year of high school ahead of me, not to mention college. I'm too young to be a father.

The look she had given me was so serious, as she held her hand to her cheek. It was like she had something else stupid to say to me. I waited, but she said nothing and just walked away. The last thing I saw was her ponytail, as she turned the corner.

* * *

My phone rang. As I grabbed it I saw that the call was from Y. Nagato. I hit the call button. "Hi Nagato."

"Please hand the phone to Kyon." The girl on the other side spoke in an even tone.

"I am Kyon. Who is this? Why are you using Nagato's phone?"

"I am called Yuki Nagato, and by 'Kyon' I mean the boy next to you."

"Yeah, like I'd believe that Nagato had a sister."

"I do not, but you are not of this world."

"What?"

"In the terms used here, you would be considered a slider from an alternate dimension. Please hand this world's Kyon his phone."

"Here you go, 'Kyon'." I handed the phone to the boy with my nickname, got out of the bed and went to sit in the chair.

"Yes?" he spoke into the phone. "So Suzumiya finally snatched a person from an alternate reality? We'll sneak over to your apartment. See you there soon."

I studied his face as he talked on the phone. There was something familar about it, but I was sure I had never met him before. "So now what?"

"Like I said, we're going to Nagato's. She's got enough room for mysterious extra people."

"Well the Tsuruya house is much bigger."

"No need to get Tsuruya involved at this point."

"Are you going to call in the rest of the SOS brigade also?"

"Seems like a plan."

"But not Suzumiya!"

"Yeah, yeah. We have to keep up the firewall between 'God' and strange events."

"Uh, yeah, that also." I asked his real name, and it was almost the same as mine. We decided that I would adopt Kyonko as my nickname.

As he stepped outside his room so I could change I noticed that we even wore the same style of pajamas, in slightly different sizes.

I looked through his closet and didn't see anything that would fit me, but then I found a box in the corner. It couldn't be, but it was. It was that box of old clothes I never got around to throwing out. It was all boy's styles here of course, but I threw together something I could wear.

* * *

I washed up, dressed, and rode my bicycle down to the station. The other three were already there. Nagato looked like a dork, standing there in his school uniform with his head in a book. Asahina was dressed fashionably, but he looked like a middle school student instead of the high school senior he was.

Koizumi wore a vest over her dress and her exacting attention to detail made it all match down to her purse. Her usual smile seemed a bit tired. Must be that time of the month for her, or something.

"You three go sit in the cafe. I'll stand here and wait here for Kyon, as usual."

They all nodded and turned away.

* * *

We almost made it to the door, but then a young girl asked, "Sneaking girls into your room, Kyon?"

I turned at the mention of my knickname and stopped. Again there was something almost familar about this strange person.

Kyon, well the Kyon of this world spoke to the strange little girl, "Please don't tell Mom and Dad about this."

"No, no." She walked up and looked at me. "I like this one."

"Thanks." I patted her on the head.

I rode in the same fashion as I had with Suzumiya and before that with Sasaki, grabbing onto Kyon's shoulders as I stood on the back of his bicycle. "I like her. She seems much nicer than my little brother."

Our destination was exactly the same appartment as Nagato's. I stopped in shock as I saw the people there. Again they were strangers, but I could guess the correspondences. "Nagato, Asahina, and Koizumi, right?"

They all nodded in turn.

"Then does this mean that Suzumiya is a girl?" I did cartwheels in my mind as I tried to figure out how different he would be without all that macho crap.

"Yes Haruhi is." Kyon replied.

"Somehow everybody's switched genders. I'm the girl in my universe who matches to this guy." I pointed at Kyon. "So just call me Kyonko here."

We sat down and discussed the situation. These girl versions of Nagato and Asahina talked about possible ways to return me to my own universe.

"I'm not sure if I should go back. Suzumiya is the one who sent me here." I didn't elaborate. If their Suzumiya was anything like mine then they would understand the dangers.

Just then my, I mean Kyon's, phone rang. He saw who it was, but answered it anyway. "Hi, Haruhi."

The girl on the other side of the line sounded angry, but I didn't catch her words.

"Sorry, I'm running late. I'll call them on the way and see what's holding them up."

An all too familiar jingle from a really cute kid's anime sounded from Asahina's purse.

Again the girl on the phone spoke to Kyon.

"At Yuki's." He replied.

She hung up on him and then he looked at me. "She's coming here. Let's get you hidden."

* * *

There was no sign of her at five minutes to nine, so I sat down on the edge of the planter. She wasn't there at nine either.

At ten minutes after nine I reached for my phone and called her. The phone rang six times then went to voicemail. I was pissed enough to leave her a message. "Hi. This is your brigade leader. We're all waiting for you at the cafe. Get your lazy ass down here so you can pay the bill."

At the cafe I sat down next to Nagato and across from Asahina and Koizumi. "Looks like she's not going to show."

"You sent her away."

Asahina looked over at Nagato aghast. Even Koizumi seemed shocked into wakefulness at Nagato's comment.

I turned to look at Nagato, but he was still reading his book with his standard expressionless face. If he knew the world was going to end in an hour, he'd still be reading a book.

Our server walked up. It was Kimidori, a senior from our school. "Can I help you?" He asked Nagato coldly.

I turned to Kimidori. "No, I guess this will be all. It looks like the other person we're waiting for isn't going to show."

Kimidori nodded at my comment and moved to the next table.

"I don't want to give her the satisfaction of messing with brigade business, but Koizumi, you look totally beat. Is that part-time job really worth it? Just go home, all of you. I'll see you in the clubroom on Monday."

"Thanks, Suzumiya." Koizumi picked up the bill and stood.

"You don't have to do that."

"No, no, I insist. If my part-time job causes a disruption, then it should at least pay for this." She made her way to the cashier.

* * *

Kyon had me hide in one of the closets of Yuki's three bedroom apartment.

In the distance I heard a pounding at the door then it was opened and this world's Kyon said "Good morning Haruhi."

I strained to hear distant footsteps and then a new girl said "So. If it had been anybody other than Kyon, then I would have known that you were all here plotting a coup against me. But Kyon is too much of a spineless coward to even dream of taking me on. This means that you are hiding something from me. Everybody sit right here and remain silent. If I hear even a peep from any of you then it's the death penalty."

Apparently this Suzumiya wasn't that different from the one I knew.

I hid as far back in the closet as I could, but of course this Nagato had hardly anything in her closet, so I was soon discovered.

I stood for a moment and stared at the face of this Haruhi Suzumiya. It wasn't like she was his sister, or even his off-gender twin. The resemblance was somehow much deeper than that.

She stopped for a moment herself as she studied my face. Then she shook her head and dragged me out by the arm.

She dumped me on the floor in front of the gang, who were sitting around the kotatsu. "Explain this, Kyon."

I turned around to face her. "Don't blame Kyon. My boyfriend hit me and threw me out. I didn't have anywhere else to go."

"And why would he do that?" Haruhi stood with arms crossed.

"Because I told him, that he had made me pregnant."

I risked a glance at the gang. Nagato did not react. Koizumi's smile cracked just a tiny amount. Asahina looked directly at Kyon, her unspoken accusation as plain as day. Kyon looked at me in shock and disbelief.

Haruhi's features softened. She grabbed me by the shoulders and nudged me over to the kotatsu. "You poor thing. Yuki, get our guest some tea."

Haruhi sat down next to me and asked her to explain my story, if I would.

I explained what had happened, in broad strokes. No names of course.

Haruhi agreed that I could stay at Yuki's, until I got my situation sorted out. She then lead the brigade (plus one) on a shopping trip for groceries so that I could have proper nutrition.

When we got back to the apartment, Haruhi coached me through preparing lunch. She would find her hands lingering on mine and quickly move away. She said that my boyfriend was the scum of the Earth that the gods could not forgive. She gave me her phone number, which I already knew. She said that if he ever showed up I was to call her directly and that she would beat up this enemy of all women.

After the others left I went and prepared to bathe.

Yuki entered while I was scrubbing. "May I?"

"Uh, sure?"

She nodded and stripped.

I watched her walk over and wondered how her relationship differed from the one I had with my Nagato. I froze as she knelt in front of me, placed her hands on my abdomen and closed her eyes.

"What is it?" I looked down at her.

She opened her eyes, sat back and looked at me. "No abnormalities. Shall we bathe together?"

"Sure."

Her hands lingered on my body then she turned so I could wash her back. As we slipped into the tub together I felt again that feeling of temptation I had towards my Nagato. If only I wasn't in a relationship. Well I wasn't, was I? Not with anybody on this Earth at least. I smiled.

"What is it?" She asked without turning towards me, as she sat in front of me.

"Nothing."

Afterwards as she walked towards her closet that had the spare futons I spoke out, "This is a brand new world for me, and I've gotten used to sleeping with somebody. Do you mind?"

She turned back to me. Her eyes widened a fraction of a milimeter and I thought I detected the tiniest hint of a smile. She led the way to her bed and held up the covers so I could snuggle up next to her. She turned away, but did not complain when I wrapped my arms around her.

That night I slept more soundly than at any time since that damned test showed positive.

-HJC


	2. Chapter 2

Sunday morning I woke up alone and looked around an unfamilar room for a moment, until I remembered sleeping over with Nagato. Well, not my Nagato, but this strange girl Yuki, who both was and wasn't the alien I knew.

I heard a sound and so got out of bed and went to Yuki's living room and saw that she had just placed some trays on her kotatsu.

"Good morning, Yuki."

She nodded at this and sat next to her setting. I sat down across from her and tried the breakfast she had prepared for me. Then I stopped.

"Is there some problem?" Her face was as expressionless as always, but I could see the concern hidden there.

"It's a little bland."

"This meal provides for your essential nutrition, with reduced sodium. Hypertension is a common problem during pregnancies."

"Beggers can't be choosers, I suppose. Why the concern for my sake, Yuki? Aren't I a foreign element, outside of your responsibilities?"

"That makes you a most interesting data point."

"Thanks for the meal, anyway." We both ate quietly until Yuki's phone rang.

As I watched her walk over to her phone, I wondered why she didn't magic it into her hand, or just interface with the cellar network directly, without a device.

Yuki made few responses during the call. Afterwards looked over to me. "Suzumiya and the others are coming over here."

"Your Suzumiya, Haruhi, not mine?"

"Correct."

"Then we'd best get dressed."

Yuki nodded and I followed her back to her bedroom. Her underwear was a good fit on me, as we were both a-cups of almost the same height and weight, and I wasn't too surprised to find only North High school uniforms in her closet.

As I adjusted the jacket I felt her reach behind me to gather my hair into a ponytail. "That's a familar sensation."

"In what way?"

"At the start of our freshmen year, even before I had spoken to Suzumiya, he'd reach from behind me at the start of first period and tie my hair in various patterns each morning. I was mortified and the teachers tried to trip him up by asking extra difficult questions, but he'd just keep fiddling as he answered them all. Finally one day I predicted his next pattern and showed up to class already in it. The next day he brought scissors, but I insisted on keeping my ponytail. He said it suited me, because it was boring."

"It is best for you to maintain the first hairstyle you arrived with, so that Haruhi Suzumiya associates it with you, rather than herself."

"Yes, of course."

I sat down next to Yuki at her kotatsu. She took out a book and read and I found myself studying her. Then I noticed the fainest signs that I was making her nervous so I looked away and studied the bare walls of her living room. I tried to remember the additional details my Nagato had added during that strange parallel time he had been human. I guess I should ask this world's Kyon if his Yuki had done the same thing. If I added those things, would she see it as a friendly touch, or just a painful reminder of her 'sin'?

Yuki put her book down and started to rise.

"I'll get it."

"As you wish." She picked up her book again.

The doorbell rang as I was walking towards it. I opened the door and said, "Welcome."

The other three members of the SOS Brigade stood behind Haruhi as she studied me. "There's something about you, Kyonko. I'm sure I've seen you someplace before."

"Do come in."

"Yes, sorry." She shook her head and marched in, with the others following.

As we all sat around the kotatsu, Yuki rose. "I shall make tea."

"I'll help." Mikuru Asahina also stood.

I tried to stiffle a giggle as I considered this Mikuru in the same maid outfit that my Asahina wore. It certaintly would need to be let out a bit in the chest, but otherwise it would be a good fit, and a better match for her gender.

Haruhi returned her laser-like focus to me. "What's with the North High outfit?"

My humor evaporated as I came up with a snap answer to placate her. "Well you know Yuki, this is all she had available."

"Kyonko will also be attending North High." Yuki paused for a moment to deliver her comment, then vanished into her kitchen.

"Still, that's no excuse to wear your school uniform on your day off." Haruhi bowed her head in thought.

Her expression was so much like his, that I reflexively started my own mental gears into action. The key to survival in this universe, as it was in mine, was to keep ahead of the Suzumiyas.

"I just remembered something." Itsuki Koizumi waited the practiced half a second for the local Suzumiya to focus her attention on him, then continued. "An aunt of mine is closing her maternity and young ladies shop. She failed to account for the decline in the nation's birth rate. Present company excluded of course. Kyonko, are your measurements ..."

His information was as uncannily accurate as my Koizumi has always been. I risked a glance at my twin brother from another universe. This Kyon seemed as used to this Koizumi's sudden remembrances as I was. Strange how the Suzumiyas never caught on.

Itsuki made a quick call and a truck soon arrived with several boxes of clothes, along with some consumer electronics. There was even a laptop in the pile, but Haruhi ignored this and instead spent the rest of the morning undressing, redressing, and parading me in front of the others.

As she ran her hands over my my body for what seemed the hundredth time that day, I began to understand what my Asahina had suffered under the hands of my Suzumiya. Of course my Suzumiya had rarely touched me, until we became lovers. For one moment I pondered again which of us had initiated the relationship and quickly rejected the thought. There were too many time travel paradoxes wrapped around my life. Then my stomach growled.

Haruhi backed up a step, yanked out her phone and hardly glancing at it said, "Oh, it's that late?" She turned and opened the door leading to Yuki's living room. "Kyon, why didn't you tell me it was getting this late? Okay, we're going to the fast food restaurant. Kyon's treating, cause it's all his fault." Then she turned back towards me. "We'll go as soon as Kyonko puts some clothes on." And closed the door, leaving just the two of us in Yuki's bedroom.

Fonrtunately I had been wearing underwear.

* * *

Monday morning when I got to the classroom the chair in front of me was empty. Well that wasn't that big a deal, she was always running late. She wasn't there when the bell rang. She wasn't there when the teacher arrived and she wasn't there when roll was called.

When I returned to the classroom after eating in the cafeteria, her seat was still empty. She didn't show for any of the afternoon classes either.

I made my way to the clubroom after classes. Nagato was sitting in his corner, reading another book, while Asahina was standing in his maid outfit and making tea. Kyonko's nurse outfit was hanging on the clothing rack, but she wasn't there.

A half hour later Koizumi showed up and silently took her seat.

The entire room was left lifeless, just because she seemed to have better things to do. I had enough of that. I took out my phone and called her again.

After two rings her mother answered. "Hello?"

"Hi, it's me, Suzumiya. Are you with Kyonko?"

"No, I haven't seen her at all. She vanished Friday night. She was there for dinner, and then in the morning she was gone. It's the strangest thing. She didn't take her cellphone, purse or even her shoes. You haven't seen her since then?"

"No, the last time I saw her was Friday afternoon." When I hit her.

"Please call us, as soon as you get word about our daughter."

I assured her I would, then sat there looking at my phone after the call. "Where is she?"

"She is not here."

I turned to Nagato. He had put his book down and was watching me intently.

"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious." I stood and took a step over to him. "So where is she?"

"Someplace I cannot see."

I stood there looking down at him. That look in his eyes, was that finally a tiny show of emotion? Was he blaming me? Who was he to judge me?

"Please, Mr. Nagato." Asahina ran over to us. "Don't make such jokes."

I walked out of the clubroom.

* * *

Monday morning I awoke to the smell of Yuki's breakfast, which was as bland as the day before. I washed with her and we got dressed together. I turned to her door, but she reached out and grabbed my arm.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Wait." She stood motionless for half a minute then nodded and released me.

I matched Yuki's deliberate pace to her apartment building elevator. Then glanced over and studied her as we rode down to the ground floor.

As we stepped outside the building I almost jumped when I heard Haruhi shout "Yoo-Hoo!". At least it wasn't the "Hey You!" of my Suzumiya.

"Good morning, Haruhi."

"I just came by to show you the way to the school."

"Huh? I -" I stopped myself from saying I'd been there hundreds of times before. I hadn't, not to this version of North High. "I'm with Yuki."

"Well you know Yuki. She's always reading. Some day she'll get lost on the way to school."

I glanced over at Yuki, who had indeed adopted the Nagato defensive posture of hiding her face behind a book.

"Come on." Haruhi grabbed my free hand that wasn't holding my book bag. "North High isn't a really fancy school, but I've had all sorts of adventures there."

I walked hand in hand with Haruhi to the completely familar school, as she related adventures that almost exactly mirrored mine. Then she lead me to the school offices and waited while the clerks found the transfer papers that Yuki had magicked there. Haruhi was delighted to find that I had been assigned to the same classroom as her and continued talking about her great adventures (in which her Kyon had apparently kept all the mysteries safe from her discovery).

I nodded along and moved to take my seat.

"That seat's taken."

I looked back at Haruhi. "Oh, that's right. It's Kyon's seat." I turned to the door, "Hi, Kyon. Sorry about that." I sat down in the seat to the right of Haruhi, which my Suzumiya had chased everybody from and looked around the classroom. "Oh my gosh. You two have got to be Taniguchi and Kunikida."

"Hello, you must be new here, Miss?" Taniguchi came over, looked me over and seemed to quickly lose interest. "My name is indeed Taniguchi."

Haruhi jumped from her seat. "How do you know all of this?"

Kyon's face went white as a sheet, but I had already thought of an out. "I've been pen palls with Kyon since we were in elementary school together. That's when we gave each other matching nicknames. Just call me Kyonko." I turned back to Haruhi and asked as innocently as I could manage, "What, hasn't Kyon told you all about me?"

"No he hasn't." Haruhi returned to her seat and turned a cold gaze on Kyon.

I was only a tiny bit surprised when our first period teacher turned out to be a Mr. Okabe, instead of a Ms. I wondered briefly how far the flip extended, but couldn't even recall the first name of the prime minister, from back in my version of Japan.


	3. Chapter 3

Monday evening while Yuki was making dinner I borrowed her phone and called up my doppelganger, the native Kyon.

"Hi Yuki."

"Hi Kyon."

"Oh, it's you."

"Got a minute to hear me out?"

"I suppose. My homework wasn't going to get done anyway."

"Well don't ask me to help you figure out problems that you can't. I'm you remember, just one chromosome over."

"Yeah, yeah, so what did you want to talk about?"

"I'm just calling up to apologize for tossing you under the Haruhi bus, but we both know that's how things would have ended up anyway."

"What?"

"In the mind of a Suzumiya all mysteries are explained by it being all stupid Kyon's fault. And here you're the Kyon. So because it's your fault, the mystery of my sudden appearance is explained."

"That sounds like something I'd have to come up with."

"It's good practice. She's going to be at least a dozen times more upset when she finds you've knocked her up, unless it's the other way around in this universe?"

"If she is, it wasn't by me."

"You used proper protection every time?"

"I've only kissed her once. In a dream, more or less, nothing further."

"Yeah, that was a while back. So we've got a point of divergence somewhere. Well other than everybody being swapped around like this."

"And that one incident that changed everything will be some sort of a clue, no doubt."

"That seems to be the way these things work. Okay, were you confronted by Fujiwara's Anti-SOS Brigade?"

"Yes."

"And did that end up in that strange closed space?"

"Yeah, with the striped sky."

"Okay, I exited the closed space with a time toss that ended in Suzumiya's bed, where he took my virginity. And then when I was returned to the proper point of the timeline I took his virginity in order to even up the timeline. Where were you tossed?"

"I landed in Haruhi's bed, but we didn't do anything. I just arranged to have the brigade assemble to give her a gift, once I got back in time."

"Well in my case, the gift was me. I met with the brigade after leaving Suzumiya's house that morning. Okay, I think we see the problem here. It's that you're a wimp."

"No, the problem is that you're a slut. Little sister."

"Who are you calling little?"

"No, my little sister. What are you doing in my room?"

"Hand the phone to her and I'll explain things."

"As you wish."

I could hear some fumbling and then a young girl's voice spoke. "Hello."

"Hello again, little sister."

"You're that girl that Kyon had in his room. Why did he call you a slut?"

"No it's not me. You see it's a literature club project we're working on at school. It's got some grown-up language in it. I'm sorry you had to hear that. Please don't think badly of your brother."

"Okay."

"So, how's your life been?"

As she told me of her modest adventures that were so much like those of my little brother, I felt a great heaviness in my heart. He had always been such a miserable brat and a pain, and now I'd never see him again.

"Lady, are you crying?"

"No, no. I'm fine. Just hand the phone back to your brother please. We'll talk later."

"Promise?"

"Of course I will." Kyon's family was the closest I'd ever have to my own. I would find a way to be a part of it.

"Hi again, she's gone."

"Did she seem mollified?"

"Yeah. I guess she does like you."

"Only natural. I'm the big sister she never had, after all. Well Yuki's finished dinner. We'll figure out what the difference means later."

"This is not brigade material."

"As you wish. It's your universe after all. Just remember that they've got all the superpowers."

I managed to hold it together through dinner, but that night as I curled up against Yuki's back in her bed I suddenly started crying on her shoulder.

She didn't respond, but simply flipped the page of the book she was reading (in the dark no less).

It was so unfair. She was so above it all, with no concerns for the fates of ordinary human beings. I leaned my head forwards and whispered in her ear, "Send me home."

She froze for a moment, then responded softly, "I cannot."

"Can't or won't?"

"Your placement here was done with great care. The average margin of error would have destroyed both worlds, and yet your sleep was undisturbed."

"Then you're wrong about my Suzumiya being the one behind this then. He's never careful about anything. That's how I wound up in this mess in the first place."

Yuki put her book on her nightstand and turned over to face me. "I cannot risk your lives on such a faint hope."

"Is that what you want, or what you've been ordered?"

"Both." Nobody else, except possibly this other Kyon, would have seen the sincerity in Yuki's eyes, but I did. I turned over away from her.

After a minute she wrapped her thin arms around my body. I froze for a moment myself, then put my hands over hers.

Yuki started to sing softly in an unearthly language. It wasn't a spell like my Nagato had used, but something softer, like an alien lullaby. It proved effective and I was soon fast asleep in her arms.

I awoke the next morning to the sound of her putting out the breakfast dishes. I was considerably refreshed, but still depressed.

* * *

Tuesday morning my father grilled me about what had happened to Kyonko. After he left my mother stopped me at the door to express her hopes that we could work things out.

So that bitch had gotten her parents to call mine and get them all worked up? That was taking the joke way too far.

* * *

Once again Haruhi met us at Yuki's apartment for the walk to North High, but this time she said nothing. She simply stepped up and matched my pace, with Yuki dropping behind us, hiding behind a book again.

If Haruhi lived at the same house in this world that my Suzumiya did in mine, then this would be quite a bit out of her way, but if she was half the athlete he was it shouldn't be that much effort. I caught her studying me from time to time, to quickly look away whenever I noticed.

Finally when we got to the point where we'd merge with my usual path to school, she grabbed my arm. I looked at her, then followed her gaze to the street.

Haruhi stood there silently while Kyon walked up the hill. He didn't notice us, with his head bowed in concentration. Was I ever that much of a dork?

Finally Haruhi turned to the girl behind us. "Yuki, go on ahead."

This world's Nagato nodded her head ever so slightly, then passed by us, still reading.

Haruhi then turned and studied me. Unable to turn away I looked back up at her. She was only a centimeter taller than me, but that was much less than the height advantage my Suzumiya had over me.

Finally she spoke to me for the first time that morning. "What does he think of me?"

"Huh?" I hit the mental brakes before I accidentally spoke about my he, rather than hers.

"Kyon." Haruhi nodded in the direction he had gone.

"He doesn't know what to think about you."

"What?"

"There isn't anybody else like you." At least not on this world.

"Don't you start on that too. You don't know me."

"He doesn't know you either. At least he doesn't know how you feel."

"And why not?"

"Because you haven't told him."

"Don't give me advice." Haruhi turned and walked away.

I followed a few seconds later. I didn't have much choice. We were both headed towards the same school and class was about to start.

Kyon looked up puzzled as I walked into the classroom behind Haruhi. But then the bell sounded and I had to rush to my seat.

* * *

That was the day the whispers started in the classroom. The furtive glances towards the empty chair in front of mine. They pretended to be hiding it from me, and that made it worse. Well that was it, I had enough. I dropped by our clubroom to tell Nagato and Asahina the meeting was off today. I locked up and left a note on the door for Koizumi, who had been dragging her heels more than usual lately.

Alone with my thoughts on my bike, I set course not for my house, but for her's. I was going to get the truth out of her this time. No more of her lies and petty excuses. It was time for her to come clean.

* * *

After classes Haruhi set off at a usual Suzumiya pace, leaving Kyon and me behind. He walked silently next to me and then after he held open the door of the clubroom building for me he said, "It's rare for Haruhi to come to class after me."

"I waited until we were almost to the stairs before I replied. "She's stalking you." I took a bit too much glee in his reaction as I smiled at him.

"Don't make such jokes."

"Oh, there's no profit in my lying to you, 'Kyon'. Are you ready to talk to her about your relationship?"

"No, I'm a boy. We don't talk about relationships. And my life is dangerous enough already."

"As for that. Well my boyfriend settled down a bit, after we got together. For a while at least."

"And then he threw you out. I like my life just were it is."

"Oh ho!"

I looked up to the top of the stairs. A girl with long green hair was standing there. It couldn't be. She bounded down the stairs and gave a one-fanged smile as she grabbed my hands. It was.

"So you are this mysterious Kyonko?" She stood back and looked back and forth between Kyon and myself. "Yes, very funny!" She ran back up the stairs laughing.

Well that was one lingering question answered. His laugh wasn't any less annoying on a girl. I turned to Kyon. "That was Tsuruya?"

"That was Tsuruya. Any different?"

"Not really. What does she know, about anything? Everything?"

"I'm afraid to ask."


End file.
